Page 41 of A Flower for Angus

Poppy sent the email, feeling sad that Adrian had missed the chance to pay his obligations by a few hours. Was that why he was killed? She walked outside to say goodnight to Angus before he left. When he took her in his arms, she went willingly in spite of the eyes around her. With her head against his shoulder, she found herself wishing she could just hide there and not have to face anything else.

She couldn’t believe Adrain was actually dead. So young to die for his mistakes.

No—murdered.

There was a world of difference in those two words in spite of the same ending. She shivered; she’d never get any sleep tonight.

Chapter 10

The next morning, VinceGallo sat across from Darro and Angus in the barn office sipping a cup of hot coffee.

“Did ye find out anything?” Darro asked, taking a drink from his own cup.

Vince nodded. “Yes, I contacted my office partner after you called last night and he did some checking around. He said the word among the street cops is that it was an execution style murder. No one is giving out many details, but it’s a typical on-the-knees shot to the back of the head used by mob enforcers.”

“Meant to send a warnin’,” Angus inserted slowly.

“Exactly,” Vince replied with a grimace, “which is why they left the body in an alley to be found. If Adrian was heavily in debt to some of his extended family on his father’s side, they may have gotten tired of waiting. Even family members have a time limit if they are foolish enough to borrow, especially if they add nothing of value to the organization.

“If Morgan Kincaid managed to get the FBI to look into Adrian, he probably knows a whole lot more than he’s going to say, and it could have caused Adrian to become a liability as well.”

Angus nodded. “Poppy indicated somethin’ like that last night.”

“I know for sure he was a gambler and had a lot of markers,” Vince replied with a shake of his head. The man was desperate to get his hands on his stepmother’s inheritance. He was obsessed with the two million cash his old man left for Poppy in a separate account.”

Angus’s eyes widened. “Did ye say two million? That’s a lot of money.”

Poppy had never mentioned what her inheritance was and he’d never asked. He felt deflated suddenly. Poppy was actually a well to do heiress. Hard to compete with something like that. Thistlewind must seem pretty simple back country to her and would be even more so now.

Angus also suspected that the part in the will about her accessing her inheritance before a year was up would become null and void. As Julians widow, Adrian’s inheritance would revert to her unless he had left a will. Which he could have, but most young people in their twenties didn’t normally have anything like that in place yet. He sighed inwardly.

Even Darro was surprised at the money Vince threw out there. “That’s a lot of gambling debt,” he observed.

Vince nodded. “I also followed my trail backwards to see if I could find out if anyone had followed me over here like you asked,” he added. “I can’t be totally positive, but it doesn’t look like it. So, are you finished with me?”

“Are ye in a hurry to leave?” Darro asked mildly.

---